Solar energy heat collectors customarily are made up of an outer transparent surface or enclosure and inner heat asborber tubes with outer heat-absorptive surfaces which are contained within or behind the collector surface. A heat transfer fluid, such as, air flows through the absorber tubes in order to transfer heat from the tubes and conduct into a space to be heated. An important factor in the design of such systems is to minimize the cost of construction and particularly the cost of materials required in the make-up of such systems.
Empty cans and bottles present a tremendous waste problem; yet, those articles have qualties which lend themselves extremely well to those required in a solar collector system. In the past, can bodies have been proposed for use as the inner heat absorber portion of a solar collector assembly. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,175,541 to C. H. Midgley, a solar heating system is employed having a collector panel mounted behind a transparent surface with a plurality of beverage cans individually mounted in the collector panel so as to protrude at right angles from the panel and only the protruding ends of the cans are coated with a heat-absorbing paint, the opposite ends behind the panel being left uncoated to radiate the heat into a heat storage medium, such as, a pile of rocks. U.S. Pat. No. 4,094,300 to S. W. Young discloses a solar collector system having a series of sheet metal cans arranged in end-to-end relation, and a heat transfer liquid is pumped through the cans to transfer the heat to the interior of a building or to an appliance; however, the cans are not positioned within an outer transparent panel or housing. U.S. Pat. No. 4,279,242 to H. U. Bogatzki is directed to a solar heating system in which a series of bottle-shaped shells are arranged in end-to-end relation to one another and in offset relation to a slender tube having a reflective surface. Other representative patents are U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,859,980 to F. R. Crawford, 4,016,860 to K. L. Hoan, 4,126,121 to D. W. Fairbanks, 4,153,042 to W. E. Tragert, 4,151,828 to P. Mather et al, 4,203,420 to J. L. Schoenfelder and 4,304,222 to H. E. Novinger.
It is now proposed that a solar heating system be made up of a combination of discarded or waste metal cans and bottles and wherein the bottles are assembled as outer transparent support members for a series of cans that are similarly assembled in end-to-end relation within the bottles so as to serve as a means of conducting a heat transfer fluid into a space to be heated.